Chapter 23

CAPITOL HILL NEIGHBORHOOD, WASHINGTON DC.
TWO DAYS EARLIER.
Martha stared at her reflection on the large floor length mirror, her cheeks sunken than their usual size, eyes rimmed with dark circles and her bones more prominent than her dieting and exercise routine usually caused. It was an unappealing look, one she didn't appreciate at all.
She looked closer at own reflection and scowled, threw her bony knukles at the mirror and it shattered into a million pieces, her hands cracked open and pink blood trickled out in a thin line, making an oddly beautiful design there. She smiled at the beautiful pattern and the looked at the mirror before deciding to threw the second punch.
"Darling, please" Brownson begged a he stepped into the bedroom and met his very naked wife before the now shattered mirror,
"Leave me be!" She snapped as he held her, his equally wrinkled hands circling her frail frame.
"Why are you doing this to yourself? To us?" He begged, a loud sob breaking from his won throat.
"To us? There's no us! There's no us Brown! Not when my son, your son, our son is gone!" She replied aggressively and not withstanding her frail frame, she tore violently from her husband's hold and stepped on the glass on the floor, her delicate soles pierced and she leapt from the shard of glass, luckily it didn't stick in.
"Oh honey" Brownson immediately picked her up, setting her in the bed away from the mess and wrapping her up with the duvet.
"Let me get someone to clean this up" he said, kissed her temple and rose.
"So I've lost you too? Huh?" She asked tearily.
"No darling, I'm right here, I'm not leaving to anywhere" he replied and as if to show his sincerity, he went back to the bed and laid with her, cupping her wrinkled face in his hands.
"Then why did you do it?" She asked.
Brownson's heart skipped a beat and the guilty expression on his face was all the answer his angry wife needed. Before he could school his expression to that of surprise and confusion, Martha was already laughing, a bitter angry bark.
"What do you mean?" Brownson pushed his luck.
"The many women you've been with Brown, I know you don't attend conferences, I know they're no meetings in the Congress assembly, I know you've been with more than thirty woman so far Brown, I'm not stupid, I know everything" she said weakly and with a resigned laugh turned away from him clutching the hand towel to her injured feet.
Brownson sighed heavily and turned away from her, his eyes now focused on the broken glasses on the floor of the bedroom.
"You won't even argue? Huh? Nothing to say!" She yelled and flipped the bedside lamp over, grabbed it and flung it at the wall, it narrowly missed a servant that was by the door and crashed into the wall.
"Sir, Madam. Good morning" the young lady said, eyes cast down to avoid staring at her very naked employer.
"Leave" Brownson said.
"She stays" Martha countered and dragged the duvet completely off of her, trotted in her naked glory to the wardrobe and pulled on a bathing robe.
"Run a very hot bath for me, I want steam and heat, very hot" she insisted.
The servant nodded with a light bow and went into the adjoining bathroom, closing the door behind her.
"You can't even mourn our baby, Brown, no, you're back to your ways" she said with a soft chuckle, visibly calmer than earlier.
"I can't mourn who isn't dead Martha. Have some faith will you, these things happen, it's probably a bunch of vagrants in need of easy money, you heard the FBI regional chief, they are working on it, be optimistic, please darling" Brownson said.
"Then where is he? Show him to me! That cot has been empty! Empty! No baby! My boy is gone!" She yelled fiercely.
"Everything is being done darling, even the President sent a condolence card last week, it's being sorted out"
"I don't need their stupid cards and flowers, I need my child back! I need my son" she stated.
Brown nodded and exhaled.
"You will have him back. We will, it's just a matter of time honey"
Martha snorted and limped to the doorway of the bathroom just as the servant exited.
"It's ready Ma'am" the young woman said.
"There's a meeting at Manhattan in three days" Brownson said he rose from the bed. " I'm being honest" he added.
"No doubt, I'll be attending with you" Martha stated, leaning on the door like a malnourished wall gecko.
"It's a Congressmen only conference darling"
"I don't care!" She snapped.
"I don't see how ethical that is or if it can even be done but it isn't proper and I don't think__"
"Exactly Brown, you don't think, you just act! Like a pig!" She spat and clutched her robe tighter as it threatened to fall off her thin frame. She was seething and Brown of all persons knew Martha was a force when angry.
"I made you, I made you Senator, I made you win that election and you know it! Now you can't even use that power to get my son back! Our only child! How pathetic! " She snapped and gave another bitter raspy laughter
Brownson knew better than to argue or even defend himself at that point. It was pointless, Martha as a thorn and with the current loss of Brownson Jnr, she was now a ticking time bomb, ready to explode anytime, his only prayer was that the baby be brought home so she could come out of the madness she had completely drifted into and was slowly pulling him in too.
"I will be attending the conference Brown, I'll start parking" she concluded with a sneer.
"Darling, I'm sure there's something I could__" Brown had to pause his train of thoughts and duck the side stool as it came flying at him. The servant by the side of the room ducked too late as the stool slammed into her, knocking her to the floor.
Brownson turned, only just realising she was still in the room.
"Get out!" Martha barked, as if reading his own mind, maybe harsher.
"Send someone to clean this up" he added as the maid scurried out of the room.
"I have a golf match with the Governor in thirty minutes" Brown said, righted his tie and shirt and rose from the bed, stepping tentatively around the glass pieces. He was at the door when Martha called out to him, he turned and saw her shrunken face had transformed into a wide smile.
"I won't miss my aim next time, Brown" she said softly and closed the bathroom door behind her.
Senator Brownson exhaled, squared his shoulder and clicked the door shut. He could hear the eye piercing shrieks of hers that made the whole building shake and vibrate, her tearless cry, her 'mad music' like he fondly called. He could sum up all the divorce lawyers he knew in Washington and outside. Could think of a thousand lies he could level and get away with. But then he thought of his political ambitions, his position, the press and his connections that Martha had literally handed him once she all but married him herself. And then he thought of her fierce lovemaking that didn't always fail to soothe his heart and make him love her even more. And of course, her wrath and anger if he did manage to get the divorce done.
As he contemplated on the staircase, he decided that the loss far outweighed the gain. His only chance at getting his wife back and having his peace was the find the baby, dead or not. That way, she would either get closure or be happy to have her son back. Even justice would make her happy, he knew Martha and he was sure what hurt her most was her not knowing who had dared to take her baby and where he was.
With her, it was all about control and the more she had, the more sane she was. For two months, everything happening in her life seemed out of her control and that was slowly but surely driving her insane, Senator Brownson knew this for sure.
He tugged his sleeves up and checked his Patel Phillip wrist watch, he had fifteen minutes to change into his golf shorts and cap and head out for the stupid meeting with a Governor he didn't give two shits about.
Valeria avoided the temptation of biting her lips which was her usual nervous habit. She didn't get nervous easily, infact, she priced herself in walking through 'hell' with her chins high and a swagger on her steps. In all her nineteen years of crime, she could count with all her fingers and still be left with a spare the number of times her nerves had gotten the better of her.
Her first solo job after she left her mistress was the first times she felt the nerves overcome her. There had always been a certain strength that came with a team, that came with facing danger and knowing that you are not alone and even if you did die, it wouldn't be a cold lonely death.
They had been a group of eight girls, most of whom she didn't care to know their names but her favourite had been Marcy and Chloe and her rival and constant opponent had been Pink. That was her name and that name stuck up until the day she breathed her last in the ripe young age of twenty and a half years.
Pink had been called pink because of her unusual love for pink. It went beyond wearing pink tops and jeans and putting on pink crazy makeup and hair do. It was crazy enough that pink good coloring had to be added to most of her meals, including her tea and water. The mistress, a very cunning, manipulative yet tolerating woman had conceded to her insane demands so long as she was doing the job. Pink had picked on Valeria the very first day she joined, calling her "rich kid" maybe judging from her then round face and lush body. She had made sure the men slept with her first just to spite her. They had their fights a couple of times and bruised their faces routinely.
Their job was simply actually, as simple as it was for a young adult or even adolescents to sleep with men, drug them and cart away with their money and valuables before they woke up. The job had been done in groups, that was when Valeria learnt that men, no matter how responsible and comely they looked had a fetish that most times concerned underaged girls in bunches.
They were irresistible and frankly she had basked in the attention. They did dress up Saturday night, out to hunt down a rich man foolish enough to believe their story of being stranded in the town after a college party. They usually took them home, sympathized with them and then try to sleep with them afterwards.
The girls would bring out pills, begin to consume their fake pills which was usually sugar or sour vitamin pills. Well, most of them couldn't resist the sight of young naked girls so they too indulged on the real pills, sometimes got to have sex with one or two before they were completely knocked out by the hard drugs.
All they had to do was take whatever money was there, jewelry, sometimes even clothes and leave before the victim woke. The mistress, Mama Peng usually shared the loot between the right girls, with 80% going into her purse and 20% between the eight girls. No one questioned, after all she was the one who picked the victims, bought the drugs and offered them protection from the cops, she housed, fed and clothed them, they were beggars, orphans and some crackheads.
On weekends, when the jobs came in most, the girls got to treat themselves to a special dinner at a shabby restaurant which served hot cocoa and waffles before they got back home. Also, Mama Peng let them do solo jobs for small pocket change, they hot to do quickies by trashcan corners in dark alleys and get paid twenty dollars or less, depending on how drunk or horny the bastard was.
It was on one of those nights when some girls decided the night was still young and so went "lone wolf" like they fondly tagged it. It was raining and the floor had formed puddles here and there. The club on the next block was still blaring loud rock music and many men and women - men especially came and went. They didn't get to hunt in clubs, no, Mama Peng had forbidden it, claiming it would sell their faces of too fast.
Because of this, they remained in the shadows and took whatsoever the club girls refused to fuck. They were usually older men with fowl breathe, underaged boys that loitered around but never could get in the club and homeless people from the side of the road with a few extra dollars for a warm body.
That fateful night, Valeria had tagged along despite Marcy and Chloe insisting they tested for the next day's job. Valeria needed money, she had fallen in love with the jewelries they stole for Mama Peng and since she couldn't get the real thing, she figured a fake would be fine too. She needed some money for that and so she decided to go on the hunt that night with four other girls.
Two had been lucky and got picked up about three seconds into the hunt by some college boys behind the gas station who were too drunk to know the difference between a legal adult and a kid. The third girl had decided she would take the offer of a quickie in a vehicle not too far from the alley.
Valeria and Pink had waited at the alley patiently, Pink's very pink tank top and mini skirt shinning like a neon sign in the dark, she wore her colours with pride and Valeria envied her a little at how well and boldly she wore the ridiculous shade all the damn time.
It had been a split second thing and now that Valeria thought about it, it was probably a scorned victim who'd tracked them down and took his own twisted form of revenge. One minute, she had been next to Pink, chewing her bubble gum and the next second, she was shoved to the side of the alley, a hand clutching her to a very solid body while another hand slipped under her dress to start exploration, moving southward to areas that she knew no man had the right to touch for free. So she was taught by her mistress.